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Elizabeth Stanton Lay ’32

Elizabeth Stanton Lay ’32, May 1, 2007, in Seattle, Washington. Betty received a BA from Reed in history. In 1937, she earned an MA from the University of Washington in political science and received a scholarship to the Academy of International Law at The Hague. For two additional years, she utilized a Carnegie Endowment in Geneva. In 1939, she accepted a newspaper position in Washington, D.C., returning to the West Coast a year later. Betty was selected for a position with the Federal Security Agency, and handled personnel duties until 1944, when she left for Europe to be a military historian. After a year in this capacity in Paris, she moved to Frankfurt, Germany, and worked as an historian for seven years. “Writing a two-volume history of the Berlin Airlift was perhaps my most interesting assignment,” she noted in 1984. She worked as a classifier in federal service in Washington State in 1955 before moving to Arizona and California, and finally returning to Rosedale, Washington, her family home. In retirement she became active in politics, specifically for issues related to the environment, civil rights, and wildlife and land preservation. Additionally, she improved her skill as an organist, joined workshops, gave recitals (including for the Reed Reunions 1992 Sound Experiment), and was a member of the Organ Club of England and the American Guild of Organists.

Appeared in Reed magazine: November 2007

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